Fig. 166. MELOBESIA PUSTULATA. 
Colour. Dull-purple, or green. 
Substance. Thicldsh ; limy ; smooth. 
Character of Frond. An expanded crust ; uncertain in outline ; oblong or divided ; forming 
irregular patches on the plant on which it grows ; the largest form of the sort. 
Measurement. The patches 1 or 3 inches in extent. 
Fructification. Only one kind known. Clustered strings of spores in numerous large, rather 
prominent, round, conical capsules^ with a hole at the top ; sessile on the frond. 
Habitat. Our coasts generally ; chiefly south and west. On Phyllophora rubens and other algae. 
Common. 
Dr. Harvey has little doubt that the four last-described Melohesias are but differently 
advanced developments of one species. Dr. Johnston went further still, considering them 
all but imperfect developments of CoralUna officinalis ; whose base, it will be remembered, 
is a thin, circular, limy patch of a purplish or pinky colour. 
Fig. 167. STENOGRAMME INTERRUPTA. 
Colour. Eose-red ; very clear and pinky. 
Substance. Membranaceous ; more rigid below than above. 
Character of Frond. Flat, fan-shaped or semicircular in general outline. Eising from a short 
stalk ; deeply cut from the base into narrow slips {lacinice ) ; or the lower portion 
undivided, the upper slit. (See figure.) Lacinite repeatedly forked (^dichotomous) 
slightly widening upwards ; their tips blunt. Eoot a disc. 
Measurement. From 3 to 5 inches long ; and about the same in width across the whole frond. 
Fructification. Of two kinds. 1. Minute spores immersed in the frond in dark, narrow, nerve- 
like lines ; running through the centre of each lacinia like a midrib. 2. Tetraspores 
in dark groups (son) scattered on the surface. Very rare in Britain. 
Habitat. Plymouth and Cork harbours, and a few stations on the south coast of England. 
Washed ashore or dredged. Attached to stones in from five to ten fathoms’ water. 
Very rare. 
Fig. 168. GRACILARIA ERECTA. 
Colour. Pale or full red. 
Substance. Elastic ; rigid ; not adhering to paper. 
Character of Frond. Stiff, upright, tufted ; slightly branched. Stems cylindrical, slender ; 
simple, or once or twice forked {dichotomous). No branchlets, or very rarely. 
Fruiting in winter. 
Measurement. One or 2 inches high. 
Fructification, Of two kinds. 1. A mass of minute spores in globose capsules clustered 
together ; external. 2. Tetraspor^es, contained in little pod-like branchlets at the 
ends of the branches. 
Habitat, South coast of England. The flat bottoms of shallow rock-pools, near low-water 
mark. Also in from four to five fathoms’ water. Very rare. 
When in perfect fructification this little plant is easily recognised,” says Dr. Harvey, “ the 
clustered tubercles and lanceolate, pod-like tips being both very strikingly characteristic.” 
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